Magnificently written satire by Ismail Kadare about what happens in totalitarian regimes. And superbly translated by John Hodgson who brings alive this book originally written in Albanian.
At the main square in the city of Constantinople, there is a kind of a cove in which traitor's head is kept there for public viewing. The severed heads of all the traitors of the rulers are kept there and there are elaborate rules and regulations governing it including inspection twice a day, a weekly visit by a medical doctor, treatment with honey and ice etc.
Kadare brilliantly goes on to devour whatever respectability totalitarian regimes have in their midst by tearing into them in such brutally savage fashion unimaginable in any literature before. There is Abdullah the keeper of the traitor's niche he gets married but is unable to consummate his marriage. There is Tundj Hata, the courier whose job is to deliver the decree to the traitors and bring their heads back to the capital city. En route he makes some money of his own by displaying the head to the gullible villagers.
There is Ali Pasha, an 82 year old who has a 22 year old wife and Hurshid Pasha his rival and then there is Lala Shahini all luminous characters in the book. Shahini's role is interesting - he works in the Department of Archive and he has to erase the languages, cultures, styles, patterns of the people - to brainwash them basically. Then there is a Tower of Psst Psst which captures all the whisperings of people anywhere in the country and they are banished to a swamp.
Breathtakingly brilliant book. Goodreads 5/5
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